Simone Jester

I looked and looked and looked, mostly at AO3 because of it's awesome tagging system, and the only actions-have-consequences fic I found that has Tony facing consequences was one that took place after IM2 and involved a woman's death during the Tony-Rhodey armored fight at Tony's party.

So this was my post to (LJ)avengers-search, and I hope it's taken well and not seen as shit-stirring: (and for the record, it was written in good faith; I really do want to find fic like this)

Themes I'm looking for but haven't found because the fandom saw Iron Man 4/CACW and started hating on Team Cap:

Where both sides were a little right and a little wrong.

Where Tony isn't a precious innocent who did nothing wrong. (Neither are any of the other Avengers, but the amount of woobiefication of Tony post-IM4 got to be too much.)

Where someone calls Tony out for recruiting a child soldier (Peter), misleading him, lying to his legal guardian, taking him out of the country and putting him in danger. Ideally Aunt May, but I'll take what I can get.

Where someone points out that Vision's energy weapon is what injured Rhodey, and that all Sam did was dodge it, and that Sam was fucking para-rescue and could have done some critical first aid (though maybe he did in IM4 after the fade-out).

Where it's acknowledged that Crossbones brought the bomb and set it off, and Wanda tried to mititgate the damages.

Where someone points out that Thaddeus Ross is a villain. (I'm convinced that IM4 takes place in 2017, because he'd totally be a Trump hire, not an Obama one.)

Where at some point, the Avengers remember that they are adults and they discuss disagreements and compromises and--gasp!--go to the UN conference as a united front to discuss them, since they are the ones who'd be the most affected by them.

Okay, so that was a little bitter and ranty, but I really am looking for fics like this. The only fic I write is self-insert fluff or I'd take a crack at it myself. I know Team Cap did stuff wrong, and I don't expect them to be held blameless, but the only evils in the movie are Strucker, Hurt!Ross, and Martin!Ross (he totally counts after the whole "laughing at the idea of due process" thing).

They don't all have to be in the same fic, of course. Those were just examples.

Gen or any pairing or more-ing that doesn't include Darcy or Loki is welcome.

Or something that's just the team hashing out the scene after Ross leaves where they have an adult discussion and discuss compromises.

Tony was right that oversight was important (especially internationally, how would Americans feel if Captain Canada barged in and started defeating the bad guys while doing lots of property damage?), but Steve was right that they need the freedom to refuse missions they object to (though going someplace where the local government doesn't want them wouldn't be okay because sovereignty).

And not to beat a temporarily-dead underage superhero, but the way Peter Parker was introduced was just Not On. I mean, really? They couldn't have had him be an 18 year old college freshman? Or even a high school senior? The whole subplot with Peter is sketchy as fuck because of the manipulation and endangerment of a minor.

I'm posting it here with these additions because I can add the additions here, at my personal journal, and because maybe someone who sees this but who isn't subscribed to (LJ)avengers-search might have some suggestions. But mostly because I wanted to rant about the lopsidedness of the fan response to IM4/CACW.

This is the first time I've done a real 9/11 post, so please bear with me. Or skip it entirely if you don't want to hear one more story about someone's reaction from a thousand miles away.

When it all started I was in Speech. It was my senior year of high school. All the classrooms had TVs, but our classrooms' TVs were off because we were giving speech presentations. Chris and Jason were in that class--actually, this class was where Chris introduced me to Jason. Anyhow, once that first-period class got out, we went out into the hall and Chris's twin brother James came right toward the three of us, very serious, saying something about planes and the World Trade Center. My homeroom was in a different building so I didn't hear most of it and I went back to thinking about how to let Jason down gently.

Those thoughts stopped when I got to homeroom and their TV was showing the news, and I realized what James had been talking about. Planes crashing into the Twin Towers WTF?

From homeroom to TV Production where the TV was on, but on silent with the closed captioning on, because groups were filming class projects. Towards the end of the class the teacher stopped everything and opened up the class for discussion. I asked if this was as big as Pearl Harbor, and he said that it was likely bigger.

Third block I had Volunteer Public Service (for the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship I wound up not getting *whine*) at the Titusville Chamber of Commerce, conveniently right next to school so I didn't need a car, I could just walk. My big project there was putting together packets of info on housing, utilities, and such for people in other states looking to move to Titusville so they could work at Kennedy Space Center. The people who gave me my assignments let me watch the TV that was in the room where my Big Project was set up, and for the first and only time it was on. I was the one who told the others about the crash in Pennsylvania. I was wondering how many other plane crashes there would be, and where they'd be. And when the speculation started about Osama bin Laden, my first thought was oh fuck I hope not, because while I didn't know much about fundamentalist Islam or terrorism, I did know the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists, and I was worried that people would take their anger at these attacks out on Muslim Americans who'd had nothing to do with these attacks.

And damn if that didn't happen.

I was really proud, though, of how MTV and VH-1 sprang into action, playing patriotic and hopeful-sounding music videos and interviewing young people from all walks of life. I think by the end of the next day the "I. Am. American." commercials were all over the place.

I was also proud to see the lines going around the block near blood banks. I had school and my mom had work, so we waited until the weekend and didn't have much of a wait.

I wish that on these anniversaries of 9/11 that our leaders would make a point in their speeches where they talk about 9/11 as a day of service that blood donation is a great way to serve your country, save lives, and feel good about yourself. Also it's 500 calories gone bye-bye and you get cookies. The Titusville blood bank had Famous Amos cookies. :)

So...that's how 9/11 happened from behind my glasses. I don't think I saw anything other than news or the specials on VH-1 and MTV until that Thursday or Friday. We just wanted to know what was going on. A friend of my mom's collected stuffed animals (I contributed what few I had; I didn't become much of a plushie person until my 20s) and drove them up to New York since all flights were grounded. I wondered where my dad was in the sense of was he stuck somewhere in the Midwest or something because he was on a business trip or something but as far as I know my dad's never gone to New York City on business so that worry wasn't there. And if I remember correctly he was at home in Florida on that day anyway. My other worry was that my Uncle Mark, who's a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve, would get called to active duty and have to go to war again. (He wasn't, for which I'm super grateful, 'cause he was active duty enlisted during Desert Storm when I was little and even at that young an age I saw how worried my mom was about her little brother.)

And all I'm gonna say about that fuckwit fundie jerkoff in Gainesville (HELLOOOOOO REDNECKSVILLE) is that I wish he'd never become famous. He doesn't deserve the attention, his blowhard asshole tactics have already caused one death, and it's making things worse for service members deployed overseas. And Chris and I are getting ready to move to Ft. Drum which is a quick-deploy station so Chris will be going to Afghanistan probably not long after we get there and and and I really just want to kick that bastard in the shins. *deep, shaky breath...deep breath...sigh* Yeah. I'm more than a little pissed off.

One more thing that happened in the days and weeks after the attacks--President Dubya said of the 9/11 hijackers, "these people have no religion." I was furious. Fuck you, George, I have no religion. They were true believers! They may have been fundie whackos who took their own holy book out of context, but they still believed in their God and their dogma. Which is why when then British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "This was an attack on all people of faith. And those of none," that I wanted to shake his hand and hug him and bake him cookies because that was something I needed to hear said in front of cameras and microphones by someone with power. I hope that I can meet him in person someday and thank him for that comment, even if I disagree with him on a whole bunch of stuff politically.

I just wish I could have heard it from an American political leader.